Adah Sharma plays an unconventional lawyer, with a penchant for being a detective, in her latest web series Reeta Sanyal. It is radically different from the roles she has played recently in politically-motivated films like The Kerala Story (2023) and Bastar: The Naxal Story, as the tone of the show is more of a pulpy-comedy. When she was offered the part, Adah says that she jumped on it, thinking that it would be exciting to play ten people in a single series. Her character, Reeta, disguises herself into a different people to get to the truth of the matter.
Besides, it was the genre itself that appealed to her in the first place. “The last two films that I did were real-life subjects and then I did Sunflower, where I played a character with grey shades,” she says. “So, when I got to know about Reeta Sanyal, I got on board immediately.”
The show is based on the character created by Amit Khan, a popular Hindi novelist, known for writing Commander Karan Saxena, which was recently adapted into a series by Disney+Hotstar. Adah reveals meeting Amit and reading books featuring the character of Reeta to understand it better.
She says that Amit had seen her work in the 2023 web series Commando and thought that she would be a good fit for the role of the flamboyant lawyer. “The character I played in Commando is somewhat closer to Reeta as it’s also larger than life and not close to reality,” says Adah. “I like that Amit’s characters are pulpy and larger than life. At the same time, they are very rooted in reality.”
Reeta Sanyal is directed by Bengali director Abhirup Ghosh, known for helming stylistic thrillers. Adah reveals that there was quite a lot of space for improvising on the sets. “Acting is a collaborative process.
For an actor, the more information you get about a character, the more inputs you get from the creative people making it, the more it helps your performance,” she says, and shares an instance from her discussions with the director when she worked on a particular accent for one of her characters in the series, to differentiate her from other characters. “I told Abhirup about this actress whose accent I liked.
He found it appealing as well. So, I took her accent and it worked and turned out to be funny too.” The actor mentions another scene in the series where she plays a prostitute for which she had to incorporate a certain body language. “Reeta is trying to fake a confident demeanour. But, it’s quite funny and it’s not working as she tries to become someone else. So, we did a little bit of physical comedy there,” she says.
Over the years, apart from her work in Hindi films, Adah has also starred in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada films. She feels that it is easier to emote if she knows the language she is acting in. “If you don’t know the language, you have to work with a coach and then work on the lines,” she says.
“But, it’s definitely more organic when you know the language. Everything just becomes easier.” For her, it is the honesty in portrayal that becomes important while acting. She made her debut in 2008 with the horror film, 1920, playing a young girl who gets possessed by an evil spirit. She feels that she likes to be in the moment when doing her scenes which helps her to stay true to the character.
“I believe I was possessed while doing those scenes in 1920,” she laughs. According to her, little has changed since then, when it comes to her process. “As a person, I hope I have evolved.
But, when it comes to my craft, my only belief even then was to go in front of the camera with full honesty,” she says, adding that she doesn’t have a particular process when it comes to acting. “It’s happening in real-time to me. I believe that every tear has to be real; every sweat drop has to be real; every emotion has to be real. I know it’s very unhealthy to do this, but I don’t know any other way,” she concludes.